YOUNG entrepreneurs in East Malling have turned to a Kings Hill-based business agency to learn exactly what makes a company tick.

Pupils from years 12 and 13 at The Malling School have been running Clockworks - a company that manufactures clocks made from CDs - since going public at a trade fair held for Kent Young Enterprise companies at the Chequers Centre in Maidstone last year.

Now the group of teeneagers has enlisted the help of Business Link's finance department manager, Ian Netherton, alongside Jonathan Simmons, partner at ASB Law, and retired retailer John Brooks, to help expand the company's business plans.

Paul Taylor, 16, deputy managing director of Clockworks said: "Our advisers don't tell us how to run the company but they give us guidance on what we ought to be doing and where we have had problems they have helped us sort them out."

When Clockworks went public with its product at the trade fair last year it sold out of clocks in just two hours and now the pupils are planning to continue the company after their time with Young Enterprises finishes.

Mr Netherton, who has been impressed by the pupils' development, said: "It has been refreshing to see the students' fantastic enthusiasm. Young Enterprise is all about 'learning by doing' and The Malling School's young entrepreneurs have done really well."

Having to run Clockworks as a real business - dealing with suppliers and the public, and putting together a business plan - has undoubtedly helped the development and teamwork of these pupils from The Malling School."